The Drum Beats Out of Time
by serenelystrange
Summary: Answered this prompt: "Supernatural, Castiel, Cas is confused why men keep honking their horns when he is in a female vessel." - Got kinda schmoopy at the end there.  Reviews are love! Title taken from "Time After Time."


Prompt: "Supernatural, Castiel, Cas is confused why men keep honking their horns when he is in a female vessel."

A/N – This turned out a lot longer than I intended, lol. Whoops.

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The third time it happens in fewer than thirty minutes, Castiel stops walking and glares at the passing car in frustration. The offending machine just honks again, mostly drowning out the lewd comments coming from its passengers.

Castiel sighs, and resigns himself to what he'd been dreading since he'd woken up in this unfamiliar vessel. It's time to visit the Winchesters.

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He finds Sam first, in a grocery store, of all the mundane places. He's throwing things haphazardly into a basket that looks tiny on the larger man's muscled arm. He seems so much taller than Cas remembers, almost impossibly so, and it strikes him so much that for a moment he just stares, unable to speak.

"Hey, you alright?" Sam asks him, smiling kindly, but not stepping any closer.

Cas looks up, and then up some more, before responding.

"Sam," is all he gets out before Sam is taking a step back and brandishing a small vial of holy water as discreetly as possible in a fairly crowded grocery store.

"How do you know my name?" he asks, looking at him suspiciously.

"Please," Cas says, imploringly, "You know me. We're friends. Or, we were, before…"

"Before what?" Sam asks, sounding no less suspicious, but a bit more curious.

"Sam, _please_," Castiel says again, staring up at Sam, trying to convey the words that won't come.

Sam gasps as he takes in the familiar look, still shining through impossibly blue eyes, even if everything else is wrong.

"Cas?"

Relief washes through Castiel and he tries for a smile; managing a small quirk at the side of his mouth.

"Jesus," Sam says, looking what Cas considers to be overly distressed.

"I am not Jesus," Cas says, moving closer, "Nobody has heard from him in a long time."

"Dean's gonna have a stroke," Sam says, ignoring Cas' penchant for the literal.

"Because he thought I was dead?"

"No," Sam laughs, "Because you came back looking like… _that.__"_

Cas looks down at his new vessel and shrugs.

"She was nearly dead when I inhabited her. Her soul is at peace now."

"That's… good," Sam says, pausing to appreciate the apparent moral action of the angel, "But did you have to come back as such a…. babe?"

Cas frowns, "This vessel is no younger than 25 years old. Surely, she is no babe."

"Oh, for the love of…" Sam trails off. He places his basket on a nearby shelf and grabs one of Castiel's arms, pulling him along.

"We're going home, now."

Cas huffs, but allows himself to be pulled along anyway. At least until Sam comes to a dead stop, screeching Cas with him. There's a large man in a police uniform, staring at Cas with what he thinks is concern.

It's then that Castiel realizes the man is talking to him. He looks up, and honestly, why did his new vessel have to be so _short_, and blinks at the officer.

"Is everything ok, sweetheart?" the man repeats, glancing at the tight grip Sam has on Castiel's slim wrist.

Sam releases him instantly and gives the cop his most boyish smile. "We're just in a rush, officer, no trouble here."

"I wasn't asking you, boy," the officer says, focusing back on Cas. "Do you feel safe, ma'am?"

Castiel nods, because it's true, and answers honestly.

"I am safe now that I've found him. We will be safer when we get to Dean."

The cop looks confused, but there's not much he can do without a complaint.

"Well then," he says, tipping his hat to Cas, "You two have a good night."

"Thanks," Sam mutters, grabbing Cas' hand as they hurry out of the store.

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"Where did the Impala go?" Castiel asks, from his position in the passenger seat of Sam's ugly blue car.

Sam snorts, "Oh man, you have been out of the loop. We'll fill you in later. You have a lot to explain, yourself. I'm still not sure I should even be trusting you. Even if you did pass the holy water test."

"I will explain to you and Dean at the same time. The best I can, anyway," Cas says, staring out the window into the blur of lights.

It occurs to him that it's nearly Christmas.

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"Did you get the pie?" Dean asks when he hears the door shut, without looking up.

"Not exactly," Sam says, clearing his throat loudly.

Dean looks up, his confusion melting quickly into interest as he takes in the sight before him.

"Do you need the room to yourself for a few hours, Sammy?" he asks, unable to keep the grin off his face or out of his voice.

"Oh God, no," Sam says, blanching at the thought.

"Hey," Dean says, frowning and turning his attention to Cas, "Don't mind my brother, sweetheart, he can be an ass."

Castiel looks up at Sam, "why does everybody keep calling me sweetheart?"

"This is ridiculous," Sam says, shaking his head, "Dean, say hello to Castiel's new vessel."

Dean is speechless, a sight Sam has hardly ever seen.

"It's true," Cas says, voice so much higher and melodic than he's used to. He steps closer to Dean, who still sits at the desk chair.

Dean stands, so tall against the petite woman that Cas has embodied, and looks down with an unreadable expression in his eyes.

"I'll just…give you a minute," Sam says, before exiting the room as quickly as possible.

They barely hear the door close.

"I thought you were dead," Dean says, barely above a whisper.

Castiel looks up at him, and it's all wrong. Long black hair frames a beautiful, oh-so-female face the color of deep sand. Blue eyes just a shade too light blink back at him through thick lashes, and Dean can't help but bring a hand to Cas' face and trace the unfamiliar shape of it.

Cas moves even closer, always so unbearably close, but Dean can't make himself move away. He's so small now, just a slip of a girl, rounded in the best ways. He can't help the pull of attraction he feels towards this body, even if it hurts his head to think about.

"I thought you were dead," he says again, before giving in and pulling Cas into a tight hug, marveling at how he barely comes to his throat.

"I was," Cas says, quietly.

"How?" Dean asks, pulling away just far enough to look at Cas, but still holding on to both of his arms.

Cas shrugs, his familiar expressions so out of place on this new face.

"I remember apologizing, trying to fix what I'd done, but they held on inside me. I was in the water, I know that, but then everything went black. I woke up in this body."

"When?" Dean says, trying to wrap his head around everything still.

"Today," Cas says, "Only a few hours ago. I didn't want to come to you, at first. But I…"

"But what?" Dean asks, moving to thread his fingers through Cas' newly long hair.

"I needed to see you," Castiel admits, the vulnerability in his voice so much more apparent in his current form.

Dean is nearly smiling now, green eyes shiny with tears he refuses to shed. He still has his pride, after all.

"I never got to tell you…" he says, choking on the words that are still so hard to say.

Castiel never had been one for unnecessary words, so Dean isn't entirely surprised when Cas surges up and kisses him.

Cas is unsure at first, in both this body's movements and his own emotions, but it gets easier when Dean cups his head with one large hand, using the other to press them together from chest to waist.

Dean kisses him like he's afraid Cas will disappear at any moment. It borders on desperation, but Cas can't make himself mind. His new legs seem made perfectly to wrap around Dean's waist when he lifts Cas and pulls them backwards onto the bed.

He's dreamt of this before, of lying with Dean in the way he'd almost done with that girl in the bordello. The vessel was different in his dreams, of course, rougher and entirely more male, but Cas finds that in this moment, none of that matters.

He is still Castiel, and Dean is still Dean. The man above him is unlike any creature that Castiel has ever known, and the feelings that surge through Cas are only partially due to the physicality of what they're doing.

So much of it all is how he feels for Dean, and how he's sure Dean feels for him. Pure and simple, even when life is anything but, it's love.

For now, they're getting a second chance. They can figure out the rest as they go.

THE END


End file.
